Stewart Patrick, in his
letter, June 16, states : " In 1948, 1956, 1967
and 1973 Israel's Arab Neighbours tried to
wipe it out." This statement is utterly false and stands in contradiction
with historic facts.

Before a single Arab army
soldier entered Palestine, on May 15, 1948, after withdrawal of British troops
from Palestine, the Zionist forces had expelled, or forced to flee, over
300.000 Palestinians from their homes and occupied many cities and towns, like Jaffa and Acre, which were apportioned for the Arab state
in Palestine, by the UN General Assembly resolution #181, of Nov. 29,1947. The state of Israel which was created on May 14, 1948, refused to define its borders, and its first prime
minister, David Ben Gurion, stated:
"We are creating a new state in the western part of our country." He
stated in his diaries, after having conquered 78% of Palestine, "The status quo will not do.We have created a dynamic state bent upon
expansion." Accordingly, Israel's expansionist programme
brought about a series of wars of aggression against its neighbours,
Egypt, Syria, Palestine
and Lebanon.

In 1956, Israel invaded Egypt's Sinai, in collusion with Britain and France, in the infamous Suez War.

In June 1967,
Israel planned and effected its war
of aggression against Egypt, Syria and the Palestinian West Bank. This war is regularly
described by Israel's apologists as a pre-emptive war against Egypt's president Nasser plans to
attack and destroy Israel. This claim is utterly false and is best demolished
by Israel's leaders at the time, in their own statements:

Yitzhak Rabin, chief of staff of the Israeli army at the time, stated :" I do not think Nasser
wanted war. The two divisions he sent to the Sinai would not have been
sufficient to launch an offensive war. He knew it and we knew it." {Le
Monde, Feb.28,1968}.

Prime Minister Levi Eshkolstated :" The Egyptian layout in the
Sinai and the general military build up there testified to a military defensive
Egyptian set-up, south of Israel" [ Israeli daily YediotAhronot, Oct. 18,1967].

ModechaiBentov, an Israeli cabinet minister at the time, stated:
" All this story about the danger of extermination [of Israel in June
1967] has been a complete invention and has been blown up a posteriori to
justify the annexation of Arab territory" [ Al Hamishmar,
14 April 1972, and quoted in Le
Monde, 3 June 1972].

Menachem Begin, a
cabinet minister in June 1967, stated, while prime minister, addressing Israel's NationalDefenceCollege, on Aug.8,1982, : " In
June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai
did not prove Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with
our selves. We decided to attack him" [The N.Y.Times,
Aug.21,1982].

In 1973, Egypt and Syria attempted to regain their own territories, illegally
occupied since June 1967.

In 1978 and 1982,
Israel waged wars of aggression against Lebanon, bringing about the death of thousand of innocent
Lebanese and Palestinians.

It is time that the
international community should apply pressure on Israel to bring to an end its illegal occupation of
Palestinian and Syrian territory, that has been
allowed to stand for 39 years, in defiance of international law and repeated
Security Council resolutions.